The symptoms of a lactose intolerance and a dairy allergy have a lot of overlap as well as some HUGE differences. In this video I get into those details, and I’ll tell you about a really simple way to tell the difference between the two.

Problems with dairy is one of the most common problems that I’ve seen in my 25 year career. It’s also one of the most misunderstood issues that I’ve seen and I’m hoping that I can clarify how dairy can negatively impact your health when you have an intolerance or an allergy to it.

All dairy reactions can be broken down into two large categories, lactose intolerance, and dairy allergy. In reality these are two very different things even though most people probably think of them as basically the same thing.

Let’s start with lactose intolerance. A lactose intolerance is a problem digesting lactose. And that problem is caused by a deficiency in the enzyme required to break down lactose. It’s quite common, and I’m sure that you’ve heard of it.  

When this happens, if you ingest dairy products with lactose in them, then you can suffer from digestive symptoms. These symptoms include gas, bloating, diarrhea, and abdominal pain or cramping, and nausea.

However, this is where is gets interesting. A lactose intolerance does NOT cause any other, non-digestive symptoms. It only causes digestive symptoms.

It does not cause skin reactions, or joint pain, or headaches, or fatigue, or mucous production, or congestion, or sinusitis, or anything else.

Those symptoms can (and often are) caused by a reaction to dairy, but they are not caused by a lactose intolerance.

All of those symptoms involve inflammation and the immune system. They are not caused by an enzyme deficiency, which is what causes a lactose intolerance.

In order for those symptoms to occur, the immune system must be triggered. And that does not happen in lactose intolerance. It only happens with a dairy allergy.

When someone has a dairy allergy, their immune system reacts to a protein in dairy and triggers an inflammatory reaction. That reaction can lead to a large variety of potential symptoms, and even autoimmune reactions.

However, here’s where it gets even more confusing. A dairy allergy can ALSO cause digestive symptoms, including all of the exact same symptoms that are caused by a lactose intolerance.

So digestive symptoms alone do not help you to determine whether you have a lactose intolerance or a dairy allergy.

If you have digestive problems when you eat dairy, then it could be caused by either a lactose intolerance or a dairy allergy.

However, there is a very easy way to tell if you have a lactose intolerance.

If you know that dairy causes a problem, and you want to figure out whether or not it’s a lactose intolerance, then this is what you do.

Buy some lactose free milk and drink a large glass of it. It’s that simple. And don’t eat any other dairy products on the day when you run this experiment.

If you don’t have any symptoms when you ingest lactose free milk, but you do have symptoms on days when you drink a glass of regular milk, then you have a lactose intolerance.

But, if you do still have symptoms when you drink lactose free milk, then you have a dairy allergy. Or it’s possible that you have both a lactose intolerance and a dairy allergy, but it doesn’t really matter at that point.

Because if you have a dairy allergy, then you’ll want to avoid dairy products, which means that you’ll also be avoiding lactose. So your problem is solved either way.

But if you think that you only have a lactose intolerance, when you really have a dairy allergy, you probably only avoid lactose.  Which means that you’ll be eating other dairy products, and you’ll still suffer symptoms from your dairy allergy.

There are lots of dairy products that don’t contain lactose or have low amounts of lactose, that still do contain a lot of dairy proteins. Just a few examples include whey, casein, and cheese.

And if you eat those things, then you can still have symptoms that are caused by your dairy allergy.  

If it was confusing, don’t hesitate to watch this again, because there is a lot of detail in here that you want to get right. And there is no shame in repeating it.

I hope that this helps you to understand the difference between the symptoms that are caused by a lactose intolerance and the symptoms of a dairy allergy.

I’m sure that it also leads to a lot of questions, so please ask them in the comment section below.

Related Content:

3 Things To Know About Yogurt and Your Digestive Health

IBS and Spicy Food, The Sign That Something Bigger Is Wrong

IBS and Eating Disorders

Don’t Drink Your Milk